Berlin starts a new innovation push: 30 million for deeptech startups!

Berlin starts a new innovation push: 30 million for deeptech startups!

On July 10, 2025, Economics Minister Katherina Reiche announced the winners of the “Startup Factories” lighthouse competition, a program designed to ensure significant support for innovative entrepreneurship in Germany. Among the funded institutions, the “Gateway Factory”, a joint company between the University of Cologne, RWTH Aachen and the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, will receive up to ten million euros to support deep tech startups.

The official handover of the funding certificate took place in Berlin, where Minister Reiche emphasized the strategic importance of the initiative. The “Gateway Factory” is one of ten startup factories supported by the federal government and aims to establish cross-university startup centers with an international reputation.

Focus on deep tech and innovation

The “Gateway Factory” focuses on supporting deep tech startups in key areas such as Future Health & Life Sciences, Sustainable Infrastructure & Mobility, Future Computing & Engineering and Future Regulatory Demands. The support offered includes not only personnel, customer and capital acquisition, but also access to production and laboratory space. It should be noted that the “Gateway Factory” has already raised private funds amounting to around ten million euros.

The importance of this initiative is undisputed. Professor Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee, Rector of the University of Cologne, emphasizes the potential of excellent research, while Professor Dr. Anja Steinbeck from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf sees management and financial expertise as crucial factors for the success of startups. Professor Dr. Michael Riesener from RWTH Aachen emphasizes that this funding represents a significant contribution to the scaling phase for deep tech innovations.

Public and private partnerships in Berlin

In parallel to the “Gateway Factory”, the UNITE innovation and start-up center in the capital region also received funding of 10 million euros as part of the EXIST lighthouse competition. Here too, the announcement was made by Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche. UNITE has a total of around 21 million euros available for the next five years, which comes from both public and private funds.

UNITE is made up of over 50 partners from science, business, politics and society in Berlin and Brandenburg and has set itself the goal of developing the region into a leading international innovation ecosystem. The initiative is an example of strategic collaboration between different actors to promote innovative start-ups and the creation of new jobs in the capital.

The connection between the various initiatives is reinforced by the findings of the Bitkom survey, which shows that 76% of startup founders consider improving the transfer infrastructure at universities and research institutions to be important. The federal government launched the Startup Factories competition in the summer of 2024 to support scientific spin-offs and promote the translation of scientific strength into marketable solutions.

In summary, both the “Gateway Factory” and UNITE represent important steps towards a dynamic and sustainable startup ecosystem in Germany. The clear focus on deep tech and innovation, coupled with support from government and private funds, could lay the foundation for a new era of start-ups in Germany.

For more information about the initiatives you can read the reports from uni-koeln.de, berlin.de and bitkom.org visit.